Friday, April 17, 2009

Talk by Will Richardson and an observation about editing, publishing, and responsibility

Just watched a live talk: Will Richardson speaking at the Blue Ribbon Institute up in MA; took part in a live chat on Cover It Up hosted by the ever tweeting Magistra M. The program was covered on Ustream by Karen Janowski. Great work by everybody in organizing and taking part in the extension of this conversation online.

Two things Richardson said really stick with me: 1) Our kids need to learn how to be editors. And 2) Despite the fact that our kids are publishing all the time, we still teach them in the old fashion. Part of the way I take this is that we still teach them from the top-down point-of-view where publishing -- and therefore literature and knowledge -- is something sacred for the select to write and have read by the masses.

Well, things have changed.

We need to teach our kids how to be editors. And to do so, we need to model good publishing practices for them. Which, in this environment means that we need to blog; we need to tweet; and we need to edit wikis. You wouldn't put a kid in the car and send him or her out onto the highway with a driver's ed teacher who never passed his own driver's test. Why would we expect kids to learn the new media if we don't understand it?

Blog Blog Blog Blog Blog. Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet. Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki Wiki. It is the responsibility of every teacher to actively take part in the 21st century -- because our students don't have a choice.

1 comment:

Thank you so much for joining into the conversation yesterday. It was great to share the conference with the world. You always challenge me to think differently and try new things - for myself as an educator and for my students.

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